Time to add finishing touches

The A’s are headed for the end of their favorite month, and the schedule provides for them a potential gift — the elimination of half of the division.

They are in Arlington for a three-spot against Texas, a team on the verge of obliteration despite the splashy trades for Carlos Lee and Kip Wells. It isn’t so much that the Rangers have been terrible (although losing three of four to Tampa Bay is typically a bad sign), but while they have gone 15-16 in the last month, the A’s have gone 21-9, which is why this weekend could finish the deal for Buck Showalter and His Amazing Disappearing Dance Act.

The A’s are seven games to the good on Texas, and simple math will tell you that a sweep means the Rangers are down 10 with 33 to go. And no, that’s not the makings of the greatest comeback ever — it’s the opening dirge of a really humid funeral.

Even winning two of three, the Rangers are still eight out, and 11 or 12 out of the wild card, which is very nearly dead.

No, the Rangers only stay in dreamer’s position by sweeping a team that has only lost three consecutive games three times since the end of May, and if someone can explain how they got swept by Arizona at home, they should then take a bottle of Rag Top Red and chug it quickly, just to make the pain dissipate.

This may explain why rumors abound that they are hoping to get Ted Lilly on waivers from Toronto, even though the implications for Showalter’s nose are potentially harrowing. Texas isn’t going to do much of anything as they are, so one more deal (doubtless to compliment the Miguel Ojeda and Matt Stairs deals) can’t hurt.

The way it looks, it can’t help either, but if we’ve learned anything about baseball this year, nobody’s out of it until they play the A’s in August.